In the world of business, anything that damages your brand is very bad news.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Dubai debacle damaged the Celtic brand.
Over the years, I have seen several pieces of evidence on the Resolution 12 issue presented to Mr Desmond.
Each of them raised questions about the judgement of Celtic’s CEO.
Despite all of that the view in the Desmond firmament was that Mr Lawwell was “Good of the bottom line”.
Is that still the case?
Regular readers will be well aware of my views on Celtic’s unofficial director of football.
He is undoubtedly the best-paid CEO on Planet Fitba.
When Mr Lawwell was brought on board in 2003 Celtic were on the road to financial ruin.
Quite simply, the wage bill was out of control.
It isn’t easy to turn an organization around, and he certainly did that.
The first manager to come in under him was Gordon Astrachan, and the little fella worked wonders.
He got Celtic to the last 16 of the Champions League last 16 while slashing the Martin O’Neill era wage bill.
I’m told that someone with an accountancy background usually headed up every non-football department within the club.
Perhaps the hinge factor in all of this was the fact that the preferred replacement for Mr Lawwell in the summer of 2016 could not take up the spot for family reasons.
When Brendan Rodgers left, it was back to the unofficial director of football days.
The scriptwriters in Planet Fitba have produced a twist in the Ten In A Row season worthy of Ozark.
For some on the wilder fringes of the Celtic social media, the collapse is a conspiracy.
In that world view what played out last night at an empty Parkhead was the Treason Finale planned by a man who deeply believes in the Old Firm.
To be a contrarian, your humble correspondent just sees the arrogant complacency of incumbency.
The people in positions of power at Celtic ignored the danger from across the city and thought that Sevco would collapse on cue after the New Year.
As of today, anyone who thinks that regime change is not needed in Paradise should be branded fools or knaves.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
“A brand new approach” you say, now why didn’t many of the support think of that a long time ago. Yes, before and during the nine.
FC not PLC.
Not just on the pitch have the new club overtaken us but at pitch level itself. Only a couple of years ago Brendan managed to persuade Paidwell to loosen the purse strings and invest in a new state of the art grass pitch of the type found in all EPL grounds and in major stadiums across Europe. It was to facilitate a quicker, slicker passing game. Alas, since he left, the maintenance budget appears to have been slashed, resulting in the dreadful playing surface we saw last night. Even places with historically poor playing surfaces like Ibrokes, St Mirren, Motherwell and Firhill now have better playing surfaces than us. We’re regressing on all fronts. Bet the maintenance budget for the heated driveway at Paidwell’s house remains intact. And don’t get me started on the money wasted on the Disco Lights. These were meant to make a stellar impression on big Champions League nights. We’re no longer even a Europa League standard team and, of late, well out of the Champions League before the autumn dusk sets in and the Disco Lights can make any impression. Time for a root and branch clear out.
What’s not to like,Desmonds plan has worked to a treat,as it was always the plan for Rangers to
return to their liquidated past glory.
Desmond using his stooge Lawwell has achieved this with supporters backing,but let’s
see his next trick come season book renewals.
We now have the usual nonsense about players linked with Celtic,and I don’t need
to remind fans of nonsense in previous windows.
Celtic are now operating with people who are total failures,and Desmond would sack any of his
failures in the other parts of his business.
Celtic are on a downward spiral with this man,as no true Celtic supporter would let this happen.
Time to get rid of this plastic Celt.
Hi Phil,I’m not one for either social media,apart from reading your articles,nor conspiracy theories so maybe my thoughts are quite common on Celtics managed decline .As you say,Lawwell is a man hell bent on the bottom line,he has badly misread and mismanaged the club over the last 24 months,couple that with badly forecasting the on pitch progress at ibrox
Am I giving him too much foresight in thinking that In the current political climate, going to London as a pair and having two hugely supported clubs across Scotland and Ulster would tie up a lot of loose ends for folk in Whitehall ?
Maybe I’m thinking too much about this but a lot of us have had a lot more time to dissect how shite this season has been
Hi Phil,
It’s time to demand that Dermot Desmond turns the club over to the fans. A membership club that elects its leadership. If he’s a Celtic fan he won’t need to be forced into it. Otherwise we all need to think how to achieve our ownership of the club.
Stay safe and hail hail.
Evan in Edinburgh
A Club like no other.. aye right, Celtic are a club like all the others, money, profit, shareholder dividends, that’s the only thing that matters at Celtic, multi millionaires getting richer off the back of a support like no other..Boycott everything next season, dont renew SB, don’t buy the merchandise, starve the parasite bstds out, i refuse to contribute a penny more to the upkeep of some conmans heated driveway….KTF